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Answers to WTFWTK 2.51!

Mattel has once again provided answers to your questions.
Thanks again to them for taking the time to answer these!
Check out their answers to your Round 51 questions!

This round of questions were selected by AdultCollector,
and proofed against old Q&As by Uncle Montork.
Thanks to them for their help!

-------------------

1. BlueStreak:
Back in Round 37 of the Org Q&As you said that you were working to resolve the tax issues. Now, some fans were suddenly billed for tax on the December subscription charge as well as the direct store purchase for Buzz-Off. There were no notifications about this new charge and the answers from customer service have not been clear. Why is Digital River charging tax when many of us have not been paying tax before?

We went to Digital River for an answer to this one:

“Effective Dec 1, 2010 we started to collect sales tax in two additional states: CO and TX so that makes 17 states in total. This may be what the customer is referring to, as this would be a new charge for them for the December subscription charge.

If you could get any more information from the customer (order #, email, etc.) we can look into their specific order and know for sure whether this is the case or not.

In the meantime, our tax folks will take a quick peek just to make sure there is nothing concerning from our end.”

2. Swanmarsh:
Is it possible that Mattel may one day release the text of the original plot/script/whatever-exists for the unproduced 2nd and 3rd Powers of Grayskull mini-comics? This could be an excellent 'secret' for the back of a subscribers-only map.

It is certainly possible. The first page of the two page document was printed on page four of the art book. Honestly, all of the information is in the bio for Preternia He-Man. There really isn’t much more to tell. The “Prelim Story Background” document just went over basic broad strokes, the details and dialogue were intended to be added later but sadly the line was canceled before the second and third mini comic had any work completed.

3. dark knight:
Is there any chance to get posters at SDCC that serve as a check-list or that display upcoming figures? They could be like the pack-in posters from the original 80s line that showed the figures and vehicles.

We don’t have anything like this planned right now but a good suggestion and something we will look into.

4. Sabertooth:
In Pixel Dan's video review of reissue King Grayskull we have seen that a classic'ized version of 200X He-Man can be created by combining pieces of the reissue King Grayskull figure, the Man-at-Arms figure and the He-Man figure. Does this mean that a classic'ized version of 200X He-Man will not get a unique release in the MOTUC line?

In all honestly this was not intentional and was a nice bonus. We would still love to tackle a “classicized” version of 200X He-Man one day and, yes, he would look very similar to the kit bash fans have created using King Grayskull’s body and He-Man head. Likely the changes would include recolored belts and bracelets as well as a new chest piece that did not have the cape holders on the shoulder. Nothing too drastically different. He would certainly have the same head and body.

5. AdultCollector:
Many fans who bought the Black Friday MOTUC figures complained about being sold "The Original" figures with poor paint apps, retaped mailers, loose joints, Battle Cat helmets that were either improperly attached to the figure or left flopping around in the box, and He-Man figures with poorly glued hair pieces. Which stock or run of figures are these? Are they previously returned figures? Unsold stock produced by the current toy production vendor? Or unsold stock produced by a previous toy production vendor Mattel no longer does business with? Also, why did quality control allow such a large number of flawed products to be released to the consumer, and what is Mattel doing to address this?

The Battle Cats sold on Cyber Monday were a combination of the last remaining customer service stock from the first sale and the new run. None were “repacks” or anything. If you receive a poor figure by all means contact customer service for a replacement. Also, if you have images of poor QC, please post them online on our forums on Mattycollector.com so we can pass them to our vendor.

Not to sound like a creepy cheerleader for Uki, but it's nice to know there is at least one person on this forum who is extremely positive & friendly all the time. I don't think I could be that nice even if you paid me. If we ever give out awards for "forum member of the month", Uki gets my vote. -Mr. Shokoti

The Battle Cats sold on Cyber Monday were a combination of the last remaining customer service stock from the first sale and the new run. None were “repacks” or anything. If you receive a poor figure by all means contact customer service for a replacement. Also, if you have images of poor QC, please post them online on our forums on Mattycollector.com so we can pass them to our vendor

4. Sabertooth:
In Pixel Dan's video review of reissue King Grayskull we have seen that a classic'ized version of 200X He-Man can be created by combining pieces of the reissue King Grayskull figure, the Man-at-Arms figure and the He-Man figure. Does this mean that a classic'ized version of 200X He-Man will not get a unique release in the MOTUC line?

In all honestly this was not intentional and was a nice bonus. We would still love to tackle a “classicized” version of 200X He-Man one day and, yes, he would look very similar to the kit bash fans have created using King Grayskull’s body and He-Man head. Likely the changes would include recolored belts and bracelets as well as a new chest piece that did not have the cape holders on the shoulder. Nothing too drastically different. He would certainly have the same head and body.

Oh, WOW!!!! AWESOME NEWS!!!!!

So they still want to do a "real" 200X He-Man? I thought that the King Grayskull re-deco was it... I'm not complaining though! Bring on the real Classicized 200X He-Man!

Great news about 2k He-Man being an option for a classics variant. Hopefully 2k She-Ra will also be considered. Many fans liked her more unified eternian look and it's similaraties with Teela and Evil-Lyn costume. Perticularly her upper arm bands. Hopefully they would use the original design that cornboy created back in the day with totally unique 2k boots and arm gantlets.

PRO CLASSIC POP TOY DESIGN ELEMENTS BEING USED IN MOTUC TO COMPLEMENT THE FILMATION DESIGNS!!!!

I FULLY SUPPORT THE INCLUSION OF ILLUMINA IN MOTUC!!!!!

IF YOUR SICK OF WAITING FOR A LIGHT TO APPEAR AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL, STRIDE DOWN THERE AND LIGHT THE BLOODY THING YOURSELF!!!!!!!

Great news about 2k He-Man being an option for a classics variant. Hopefully 2k She-Ra will also be considered. Many fans liked her more unified eternian look and it's similaraties with Teela and Evil-Lyn costume. Perticularly her upper arm bands. Hopefully they would use the original design that cornboy created back in the day with totally unique 2k boots and arm gantlets.

I very well may be wrong, but I thought 200X She-Ra had the same arms as Teela. If so, I imagine they'd just use the MOTUC Teela parts (which I wouldn't mind seeing an official release of).

I think we get a clue as to He-Ro's Classics origin by reading that print in the Art book.

We still don't know where He-Ro is from. I've been thinking that he was chased to Eternia by Hordak because he was originally from there, and was returning to Eternia to rid the world of the Snake Men, using his new powers. Perhaps the Snake Men were SUPPOSED to be loyal to the Horde, but were no longer. Perhaps that's why Hordak went crazy on the Snake Men.

Honestly, I think the answer to my question left me asking, so if they were not repacks then what were they? Why so many flaws? And why did Mattel speak directly to Battle Cat but not the others? They stated "The Battle Cats sold on Cyber Monday were a combination of the last remaining customer service stock from the first sale and the new run." So that leads me to believe the botched He-Man and Skeletor figures were not combinations of the last remaining customer service stock from the first sale and the new run.

As for 200x He-Man, I'm looking at a display case with quite a few too many He-Man variants clogging up the shelves, and only two Skeletor figures (not including Keldor). Let's see more new characters before they get into any more variants. I'd say give us more Skeletor variants if variants are the direction Mattel's going, but we do have Battle Armor Skeletor coming (of which I'll buy two so I can finally see my Battle Armor Fakor in figure form!) I'd love to see Dragon Blaster Skeletor. But for 200x He-Man, we pretty much already have that figure right?

So that leads me to believe the botched He-Man and Skeletor figures were not combinations of the last remaining customer service stock from the first sale and the new run.

Well, obviously. This was the THIRD run of both He-Man & Skeletor. The leftovers from the first sale of each would have been (a) sold off at cons and (b) mixed in with the first reissue long ago

Originally Posted by AdultCollector

Let's see more new characters before they get into any more variants.

As I said the other day to Mr Shokoti in response to a similar plea, of the sixteen $20 sub figures a year, four are locked down as variants (last year there were three - after BAHM, Keldor did indeed count as a Skeletor variant, and red-cape King Grayskull counted as a KG variant).

Doesn't matter whether they're original-toy variants (e.g. BA HM/Sk), 200X toy/MYP looks (e.g. Evil-Lyn/Randor), PoP toy looks (e.g., She-Ra/Catra) or something else (e.g. red-cape KG, Keldor), it's been confirmed that This Will Happen ever since the sub went on-sale (and was widely known before that since they announced that the "bonus" figures would become variants-only shortly after BAHM sold out).

[Whether or not this is a GOOD thing is entirely another matter! I agree that if they're going to do variants, they should at the very least widen the selection of characters who get variants beyond "He-Man, Skeletor, and very-closely-related characters". No more He-Men or Skeletors for at least a year after BA Skeletor/He-Man In Disguise]

Great news about 2k He-Man being an option for a classics variant. Hopefully 2k She-Ra will also be considered. Many fans liked her more unified eternian look and it's similaraties with Teela and Evil-Lyn costume. Perticularly her upper arm bands. Hopefully they would use the original design that cornboy created back in the day with totally unique 2k boots and arm gantlets.

Honestly, I think the answer to my question left me asking, so if they were not repacks then what were they? Why so many flaws? And why did Mattel speak directly to Battle Cat but not the others? They stated "The Battle Cats sold on Cyber Monday were a combination of the last remaining customer service stock from the first sale and the new run." So that leads me to believe the botched He-Man and Skeletor figures were not combinations of the last remaining customer service stock from the first sale and the new run.

I agree with you AdultCollector. He avoided to answer the question in full. The question was in 3 parts. He chose to answer only the first. Giving an answer we already know.

He asked to post pictures of the figures that we found to be (let's say) not of the expected quality. There are already pictures in this thread. Why choose to ignore that thread and instead suggest we go to the Mattel forums to start a new one? Why are they trying to divert people over there?

I agree that he ignored a good portion of the question. I asked him if the glossy body on He-Man was a flaw or going back to the style of the inagural figure and got this

TG: "All of the figures are done by hand so there will be some differences, but we are trying to scale down the gloss. We will pass this along to our vendor and quality control department"

-in between that and the second time he answered my question, he must have taken a look at some of them.

"It looks like a bit too much gloss was used and we have passed this along to quality control and our vendor. If we do another run we will try to tone this down again."

Anyways, if you want to post some pics of the jacked up He-Mans and Skeletors, then go to this thread I started a few months ago about the 3rd release of He-Man and Skeletor. I'm not sure if I can link to the page on Matty Collector but search "3rd wave He-Man and Skeletor.... my god (PICS)" I used the initial ones you posted AdultCollector along with some of my own.

We would still love to tackle a “classicized” version of 200X He-Man one day and, yes, he would look very similar to the kit bash fans have created using King Grayskull’s body and He-Man head. Likely the changes would include recolored belts and bracelets as well as a new chest piece that did not have the cape holders on the shoulder. Nothing too drastically different. He would certainly have the same head and body.

This is not a good way to go about this variant.

If they're going to make a new chest piece, it needs the extra harness strap details, like this:

Simply using the brown strap-only look on the current KG harness would be too plain.

And if Vikor gets a new head, then a "Classicized" 200x He-Man should, too.
Simply tooling a new power harness and that's it isn't going to sit well with fans.
The days of selling us 95% repaint figures should be long gone.

We need to see a return on our investment in EVERY figure, not just those favored by the MOTUC team.

So at the VERY least, a 200x He-Man should have a new harness, and a new face, if not a new face AND new hair sculpt.

Simply using the brown strap-only look on the current KG harness would be too plain.

And if Vikor gets a new head, then a "Classicized" 200x He-Man should, too.
Simply tooling a new power harness and that's it isn't going to sit well with fans.
The days of selling us 95% repaint figures should be long gone.

We need to see a return on our investment in EVERY figure, not just those favored by the MOTUC team.

So at the VERY least, a 200x He-Man should have a new harness, and a new face, if not a new face AND new hair sculpt.

This is a variant worth doing Mattel, but do it right.

Quoted for truth... If The "200X" He-Man is just a KG reissue with He-Man's head and KG's Harness without the cape holders, I'm skipping him. I don't want a half-hearted 200X He-Man... Give me a classicized MYP He-Man hairstyle. Like Lay Ze-Man's mock-up shows.

FINALLY!! GLIMMER IS IN MY SHELF!! Now I need a Crita!! Crita is to Mara what Evil Lyn is to Teela. If we ARE getting Mara, then we NEED Crita.

That mock up - as nicely done as it is - still doesn't look perfectly right. We need a He-Man head with long flowing hair like the vintage He-Man Meets Ram-Man and Terror of Tri-Klops mini-comics.

Wait for Oo-La-Larr then.

Here's how I see it - they really don't want to do 200X He-Man any time soon, and if they did it would be Snake Armour HM. If they feel pressed into doing a standard 2kHM by fan demand (which, in turn, they see as a group that's much louder than they are numerous), they'll do it very half-heartedly with a minimum of new pieces and a a load of "purple half-swords" compromise.

There are things to push Mattel on and things to not, and this strikes me as something they're likely to come round to doing properly in a few years time once they start running dry of variants people want, not now when they have plenty.

That mock up - as nicely done as it is - still doesn't look perfectly right. We need a He-Man head with long flowing hair like the vintage He-Man Meets Ram-Man and Terror of Tri-Klops mini-comics.

That mock-up was done after Marzo narrowly avoided the wrath of the ban stick for having too "hyper anime detail" looking hair (which is hogwash, but another matter).

So I was trying to demonstrate how a longer hair He-Man could be easily done in MOTUC that was neither treading on the forbidden "windblown" territory nor looking like the retired "spiky and flared" style.

Originally Posted by Reboot

Wait for Oo-La-Larr then.

If that's the case, and Oo-Larr is in fact the mini-comic He-Man and gets the full Vikor treatment (new head sculpt with long hair), then it can be chocked up as another example of bias on the MOTUC team.

Here's how I see it - they really don't want to do 200X He-Man any time soon, and if they did it would be Snake Armour HM. If they feel pressed into doing a standard 2kHM by fan demand (which, in turn, they see as a group that's much louder than they are numerous), they'll do it very half-heartedly with a minimum of new pieces and a a load of "purple half-swords" compromise.

From what we've heard, even Snake Armor He-Man would have the same head, and as we've seen from some well-meaning customs, it's pretty lackluster.

My larger point is that NO figure, no matter who it is, should get "purple half-swords" compromising.

We should be well beyond that point.

There are things to push Mattel on and things to not, and this strikes me as something they're likely to come round to doing properly in a few years time once they start running dry of variants people want, not now when they have plenty.

This is insinuating that "200x He-Man" is NOT a variant that people want.
Clearly this isn't the case, or this discussion wouldn't even be happening.